It is the 1930s and the fire of the freedom movement from distant Bengal and Delhi is warming the languid bones of the small town in Mysore, where Kaveri and Setu grow up. Theirs is a liberal, prosperous household and the family takes its privileges for granted. Mylaraiah, their father, believes that they are twice protected from such delusions as ‘swaraj’ - once by the British and then by the Maharaja. While Setu absorbs their father’s unquestioning veneration of the British, Kaveri, profoundly affected by Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to their town, comes to recognize their attempts to be ‘more English than the English’ as rather shameful. In an attempt to follow her heart and take charge of her own future, Kaveri defies her father and participates in the Quit India march organized by Shyam, the hot-headed revolutionary she is attracted to. Angered and jealous, and loyal to his father, Setu is forced into betraying his sister. The small town is shaken into life quite brutally when it faces a police firing for the first time in its history. But Kaveri is safe and home, or so Setu thinks.

The chaotic events leading up to Mitt Romney's defeat in the 2012 election indicated how far the Republican Party had rocketed rightward away from the center of public opinion. Republicans in Congress threatened to shut down the government and force a U.S. debt default. Tea Party activists mounted primary challenges against Republican officeholders who appeared to exhibit too much pragmatism or independence. Moderation and compromise were dirty words in the Republican presidential debates. The GOP, it seemed, had suddenly become a party of ideological purity. Except this development is not new at all. In Rule and Ruin, Geoffrey Kabaservice reveals that the moderate Republicans' downfall began not with the rise of the Tea Party but about the time of President Dwight Eisenhower's farewell address. Even in the 1960s, when left-wing radicalism and right-wing backlash commanded headlines, Republican moderates and progressives formed a powerful movement, supporting pro-civil rights politicians like Nelson Rockefeller and William Scranton, battling big-government liberals and conservative extremists alike. But the Republican civil war ended with the overthrow of the moderate ideas, heroes, and causes that had comprised the core of the GOP since its formation. In hindsight, it is today's conservatives who are 'Republicans in Name Only'. Writing with passionate sympathy for a bygone tradition of moderation, Kabaservice recaptures a time when fiscal restraint was matched with social engagement; when a cohort of leading Republicans opposed the Vietnam war; when George Romney—father of Mitt Romney—conducted a nationwide tour of American poverty, from Appalachia to Watts, calling on society to 'listen to the voices from the ghetto'. Rule and Ruin is an epic, deeply researched history that reorients our understanding of our political past and present. Today, following the Republicans' loss of the popular vote in five of the last six presidential contests, moderates remain marginalized in the GOP and progressives are all but nonexistent. In this insightful and elegantly argued book, Kabaservice contends that their decline has left Republicans less capable of governing responsibly, with dire consequences for all Americans. He has added a new afterword that considers the fallout from the 2012 elections.

** Bonus disc: Exercises and Meditations **
Jon Kabat-Zinn makes it clear that the essence of meditative practice lies in how one lives one's life from moment to moment, in all its aspects and relationships, and not merely in formal meditative practices. This program offers an experience of mindfulness that is entirely congruent with our lives in the 21st Century: it is effective, portable, and easily adopted -- a perfect antidote to life in the fast lane.
In this follow-up to Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, Kabat-Zinn adds a decidedly American flair to the elusive art of living fully in each moment as it unfolds. This 6-disc segment includes guided instruction in mindful walking, sitting meditation, mindful hatha yoga, and also Kabat-Zinn's responses to questions from workshop participants, which may help deepen both one's understanding and commitment to the cultivation of mindfulness.

The World of Relaxation was conceived as a way to reach out to patients lying in bed in the hospital and inviting them to experiment inwardly, with Jon’s guidance, in bringing mindful awareness to their present-moment circumstances, utilizing the occasion of having to lie in bed for some time — whatever the viewer’s medical condition and prognosis — to do something for him or herself to promote healing of the mind and body, as a vital complement to whatever the health care system and one’s doctors are doing by way of medical treatments and rehabilitation. Over one hundred hospitals have used this program over the years on their in-house television channels, and doctors often prescribe it to their patients, recommending that they practice with it several times a day. The program is meant to be “done” by the listener, rather than simply listened to. During most of the time, the listener is encouraged to have his or her eyes closed.
In the past 30 years, Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s eight-week out-patient mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program has spread from the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center to hospitals and clinics across the United States and around the world and occasioned an entire field of clinical medicine and basic and clinical research, much of which has already demonstrated the profoundly positive mental and physical health consequences of practicing mindfulness meditation both formally and informally in one’s daily life. The practices in The World of Relaxation are guided meditations similar to the formal practices in MBSR, particularly mindfulness of breathing, body sensations, thoughts and emotions; and the body scan.
The original harp music by Georgia Kelly was composed specifically for this program and is played by the composer. Harp music has been associated with healing since pre-biblical times. The music enhances the process of relaxation and establishes a flowing rhythmicity that entrains the listener’s attention and carries it through the various stages of the program. The notes of the harp have the quality of coming out of silence and disappearing back into silence, singly and in raining curtains of sounds, just as do our thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness, one’s capacity to inhabit the present moment with non-judgmental awareness, deepens over the course of a single session and even more, through repeated practicing with this program over days, weeks, months and years. The learning occasioned by practicing with this program on a regular basis can stand one in good stead from moment to moment and from day to day as one’s life continues to unfold.

Cora Baxter is back - and this time she's facing the most important deadline of her career. When TV reporter Cora Baxter attends the scene of a murder in a London park, she's horrified to discover the victim is someone she knows and devastated when one of her best friends is charged with the crime. Suddenly the fun-filled life of Cora and her eccentric camera crew takes a darker turn. Cora is convinced that her friend is innocent, but with seemingly solid evidence, the police investigation team, reluctantly led by Cora's boyfriend, DCI Adam Bradberry, believe the case is closed. With a trail of clues that leads all the way to New York, can Cora find out the truth before the trial begins, or is it already too late? The Deadline is the second in the hugely popular Cora Baxter Mysteries series by acclaimed broadcaster Jackie Kabler. Jackie Kabler worked as a newspaper reporter and then in television news for 20 years, including nearly a decade on GMTV. She later appeared on BBC and ITV news, presented a property show for Sky, hosted sports shows on Setanta Sports News and worked as a media trainer for the armed forces. She is now a presenter on shopping channel QVC. Jackie lives in Gloucestershire with her husband, who is a GP.

Clara’s family have been living a very happy life when the Nazis invade. Like other Jewish people, they are soon sent to Terezin, a walled town in Czechoslovakia.
Despite the hardships, Clara finds wonderful new friends. An announcement that auditions are being held for a children’s opera, 'Brundibar,' has the musical Clara eager for a part. However, when she learns that her special friend, Jacob, is involved in a dangerous escape plan, Clara has some new challenges to face.

Laura has just three weeks to go before her Jewish “coming of age” ceremony, called a Bat Mitzvah, when she is assigned a special project. She is to read the diary of Sara Gittler, a young girl her own age who was imprisoned by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Sara never had the chance to celebrate her coming of age, so Laura is to learn about Sara’s life and then share her Bat Mitzvah with her “twin” by speaking of her at the ceremony.
Reluctant to undertake the project at first, Laura quickly becomes caught up by Sara’s struggle to survive. Sara’s diary unfolds with the details of her daily life in the ghetto, a world full of fear, confusion, tragedy and, above all, courage. From Sara’s brave story in the past, Laura learns how to find her own courage to confront the possibility of a friend’s current involvement in the desecration of a Jewish cemetery.

Effective Apology challenges you to think about the fundamental value of an apology, to you and the receiver, as it explores in detail the key dimensions—what Kador calls the Five Rs—of a wholehearted apology, one that heals and renews. Kador also offers advice on how to accept or reject an apology, 10 apology do's and don'ts, and a quiz to test your Apology Quotient.The willingness to apologize signals strength, character, and integrity—real leadership is impossible without it. With over 70 examples of the good, the bad, and the ineffective apology in action, no other book combines such a practical, how-to approach with a rich analysis of what it takes to make apology work in the real world.

In Sandman Slim Stark came back from hell for revenge.In Kill the Dead he tackled both a zombie plague and being Lucifer’s bodyguard.Once again all is not right in L.A. Lucifer is back in Heaven, God is on vacation, and an insane killer mounts a war against both Heaven and Hell. Stark’s got to head back down to his old stomping grounds in Hell to rescue his long lost love, stop an insane serial killer, prevent both Good and Evil from completely destroying each other, and stop the demonic Kissi from ruining the party for everyone.Even for Sandman Slim, that’s a tall order. And it’s only the beginning.“Don’t compare Kadrey’s prose with Stephenie Meyer’s, or even Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Those works are mere fluffy soap operas next to Kadrey’s writing.” —Seattle Post-Intelligencer

What do you do after you’ve escaped Hell, gone back, uncovered the true nature of God, and then managed to become the new Lucifer?
Well, if you’re James Stark, you have to figure out how to run Hell while also trying to get back out of it . . . again. Plus there’s the small matter of surviving. Because everyone in Heaven, Hell, and in between wants to be the fastest gun in the universe, and the best way to do so is to take down Lucifer, a.k.a. James Stark.
And it’s not like being in L.A. is any better — a serial-killer ghost is running wild and Stark’s angelic alter ego is hiding among the lost days of time with a secret cabal who can rewrite reality. Starting to care for people and life again is a real bitch for a stone-cold killer.

James Stark, a.k.a. Sandman Slim, crawled out of Hell, took bloody revenge for his girlfriend’s murder, and saved the world along the way. After that, what do you do for an encore? You take a lousy job tracking down monsters for money. It’s a depressing gig, but it pays for your beer and cigarettes. But in L.A., things can always get worse.
Like when Lucifer comes to town to supervise his movie biography and drafts Stark as his bodyguard. Sandman Slim has to swim with the human and inhuman sharks of L.A.’s underground power elite. That’s before the murders start. And before he runs into the Czech porn star who isn’t quite what she seems. Even before all those murdered people start coming back from the dead and join a zombie army that will change our world and Stark’s forever.
Death bites. Life is worse. All things considered, Hell’s not looking so bad.

Life sucks, and then you die. Or, if you’re James Stark, you spend eleven years in Hell as a hitman before finally escaping, only to land back in the hell-on-earth that is Los Angeles.
Now Stark’s back, and ready for revenge. And absolution, and maybe even love. But when his first stop saddles him with an abusive talking head, Stark discovers that the road to absolution and revenge is much longer than you’d expect, and both Heaven and Hell have their own ideas for his future.
Resurrection sucks. Saving the world is worse.
Darkly twisted, irreverent, and completely hilarious, Sandman Slim is the breakthrough novel by an acclaimed author.

A land-surveyor, known only as K., arrives at a small village permanently covered in snow and dominated by a castle to which access seems permanently denied. K.'s attempts to discover why he has been called constantly run up against the peasant villagers, who are in thrall to the absurd bureaucracy that keeps the castle shut, and the rigid hierarchy of power among the self-serving bureaucrats themselves. But in this strange wilderness, there is passion, tenderness and considerable humour. Darkly bizarre, this complex book was the last novel by one of the 20th century's greatest and most influential writers.

In the bizarre world of Franz Kafka, salesmen turn into giant bugs, apes give lectures at college academies, and nightmares probe the mysteries of modern humanity’s unhappiness. More than any other modern writer in world literature, Kafka captures the loneliness and misery that fill the lives of 20th-century humanity. The Metamorphosis and Other Stories reveals the author’s extraordinary talent in a variety of forms—prose poems, short stories, sketches, allegories, and novelettes—and showcases the straight–faced humor, startling psychological insight, and haunting imagination for which he is revered as a modern master. In this brilliant new translation, prize–winning translator Joachim Neugroschel preserves the delicate balance, rich timbre, and wondrous language of Kafka’s original works. In addition to The Metamorphosis, this collection includes Early Stories, Contemplation, The Judgement, The Stoker, In the Penal Colony, and A Country Doctor.

‘Someone must have been telling tales about Josef K., for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested.’
A successful professional man wakes up one morning to find himself under arrest for an offence which is never explained. The mysterious court which conducts his trial is outwardly co-operative, but capable of horrific violence. Faced with this ambiguous authority, Josef K. gradually succumbs to its psychological pressure. He consults various advisers without escaping his fate. Was there some way out that he failed to see? Kafka’s unfinished novel has been read as a study of political power, a pessimistic religious parable, or a crime novel where the accused man is himself the problem.
One of the iconic figures of modern world literature, Kafka writes about universal problems of guilt, responsibility, and freedom; he offers no solutions, but provokes his listeners to arrive at meanings of their own. This new edition includes the fragmentary chapters that were omitted from the main text, in a translation that is both natural and exact, and an introduction that illuminates the novel and its author.